That is not even humour. And no I did not get it. Maybe that is just my autistic mind?

Was it saying that the ships float because they just do? I am confused.

This type of humor is comparable to a paradigm shift: you are put into one train of thought and expect one outcome, but when the outcome is not as expected you have a reaction to it (in this situation, you're supposed to find it funny).

We use phrases like "in much the same way" (or simply "like") to draw comparisons and similarities. "He eats like a pig" or "I slept like a log"

In this sentence, we are expecting a comparison to show similarity, but instead of showing what object A is similar to, it is shown what it is dissimilar to.

Another thing I think makes it funny is that drawing a connection between what bricks don't do and what these ships do do to try and explain their behavior is absurd. Bricks don't do a lot of things (they don't do an infinite number of things, in fact).

Using this logic I could use what bricks don't do to explain any object in the universe.

Valatunda ate his meal very quickly, just like a brick doesn't.

Now, that's the geekiest explanation I have ever heard.. you've been holding out haven't you?

as for Adams being geeky... maybe it depends on age. in the late 80's, in my rural high-school, there were only 4 or 5 people who even knew about HHGTTG, and found it funny. from my recollection, some of this was just the experience of dry Brittish humor, which was mostly unknown to the masses. this was before cable TV. the only people who even had an idea of British humor were the people who maybe caught a few TV shows on PBS. and a few geeky type families (like mine) that went the extra mile to install a 10ft satelite dish to get free world-wide tellivision.

in my younger years, if you even knew who Monty Python was... you had to be a geek. if you found it funny, you had to be an educated geek. remember!!! this was long before the internet... you had to be some sort of geek to even know about HHGTTG, much less to appreciate the humor.... it took knowledge and thinking to actually think that Monty Python's Flying Circus was *funny*... 99% of my High School class didn't know diddly about Monty Python, or Adams... it was only the geeks who lived in the library reading foreign authors, or the geeks watching satellite TV whe even *knew* who Douglas Adams was...

so yes. no matter how you look at things, Douglas Adams' HHGTTG is prime geek fodder.

This type of humor is comparable to a paradigm shift: you are put into one train of thought and expect one outcome, but when the outcome is not as expected you have a reaction to it (in this situation, you're supposed to find it funny).

I just thought I should mention that I haven't read the books. I just found out about them recently (and it was in this forum). Based on the reviews, I want to read them, but I want to read them in English, so getting them will be kind of hard given where I live...

tanuki wrote:
I just thought I should mention that I haven't read the books. I just found out about them recently (and it was in this forum). Based on the reviews, I want to read them, but I want to read them in English, so getting them will be kind of hard given where I live...

The books themselves are the same & that "One Story" is not found in the books. I know, I have the individual books -- bought as they came out -- but this volume is what I bought for my brother.

The book itself, brand new, is only $19.99 and you would only pay one $13 shipping fee as you are only buying a single volume. The total of $32.99 is a good price for 5 books, what with how much individual paperbacks are selling for new nowadays.

Edit:
I just checked. Paperbacks are $7.99 each. So the cost of the books would be $39.96 plus the shipping & handling.

Did a little further looking:

You can get the same thing in hardcover (not leatherbound) for $14.99 + the $13 shipping:The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide
# ISBN-10: 0517149257
# ISBN-13: 978-0517149256

Or you can get the five novels in paperback without the "One Story" for $12.89 + the $13 shipping:The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide
ISBN-10: 0345453743
ISBN-13: 978-0345453747

Or, if you don't mind a used book, you can go to http://www.abebooks.com/. They have gobs of copies. You can search by the title or by the ISBNs I included. Being used, the prices are a lot cheaper. I checked, and unlike the used books from Amazon Marketplace, the sellers on ABEbooks will ship to Bolivia. I checked the shipping charges. They ranged from $11 to $13. As you can buy the book itself for between $1 and $2, you could get the 5 in 1 for $15.

Actually, I just found one seller on ABEbooks selling a new copy of the hardcover (that's the 5 novels plus the additional story) for only $1.74 with shipping to Bolivia being just $9. That's a grand total of $10.74. For a new book and shipping to Bolivia, that's so cheap I can't believe I found that deal. There's no way you're going to beat that. It's this one here: The $1.74 Hitchhikers. That is this edition which is not available to you from the Amazon Marketplace. But you can see what it looks like.

So if you really, seriously want to read the series, here's your chance.

Last edited by lalaith on Fri 05.04.2007 8:52 am, edited 1 time in total.

(\__/) This is Bunny. Copy and paste
(='.'=) bunny into your signature to help
(")_(") him gain world domination.